Chania

A breakwater and lighthouse of the sixteenth century wrap the water in a half circle. Walk out to the far end and the whole town shows with its back to you.

Sixteen kilometres downhill through a gorge, six hours or so on the way. The narrowest point measures three metres, and in spring high water closes the route.

A sandbar traps the sea into a shallow lagoon where the water reads pale. The dirt road in is rough, and the boat is how most arrive.

Crushed shell mixed through the sand gives this beach its pink cast. Taking sand away is forbidden, and wardens walk the shore.

An indoor market of 1913 laid out as a cross, with stalls to the end of all four arms. Cheese and spice sellers gather at the crossing.

Built in 1645 as the first mosque on the island and used now as an exhibition hall. One large dome carries six smaller ones around it.

The only freshwater lake on the island, circled in a pedal boat. As the level drops in summer a strip of sand appears around the edge.

Steps climb the gorge wall to a chapel inside a cave. It is dark enough in there that a torch is needed to make out the paintings.

Ship models and diving gear fill the fortress by the harbour. A Minoan vessel was reconstructed full scale here and once floated in this water.

A narrow inlet between cliffs with a steep dirt path down to it. The colour of the water spread the photographs, and the climb back up is no small thing.

Cafes gather under a plane tree in this square of the old Ottoman quarter, east within the walls. Its church, Agios Nikolaos, keeps a minaret from mosque days beside its bell tower. Chaniots outnumber tourists, and coffee undercuts waterfront prices.

Since 2022 it has filled purpose-built halls in Chalepa, gathering finds from western Crete. Minoan clay tablets and Roman mosaic floors spread through wide halls. Walking from the old town takes 20-odd minutes, so plenty of visitors ride instead.

Founded on the Akrotiri peninsula by two Venetian noble brothers during the 1600s, its honey-stone front closes an avenue of cypresses. The monks make olive oil and wine, sold in the courtyard shop. Bare legs get covered with cloth the monks keep by the door.

The hilltop where the Cretan-born prime minister Eleftherios Venizelos and his son lie, with Chania and its bay laid out below. Rebels raised their flag on this hill in the 1897 uprising. Toward dusk people fill the hilltop cafe.

Several kilometres of sand on Crete's far west, where at evening the sun drops directly into the water. At its north end lies an ancient harbour stranded inland after the land rose. Westerlies whip up surf too rough for children.

A gorge running about 8km from Imbros village down to Komitades on the south coast, walked in two to three hours. At its tightest you can nearly touch both walls. Taxis wait at the bottom to run you back to the start, so leaving a car up top works.

A square fort Venice built in 1371 to guard the south coast, facing a shallow sandy sea. Legend has the Drosoulites, shades of soldiers killed here in 1828, marching in the dawn mist in late May. The shallows suit children.

White houses ring a little southern cove that no road reaches. Arrival means a boat from Chora Sfakion or the coastal footpath. Come evening, waves and taverna chatter are all you hear.

Ruins of a hilltop city above Souda Bay, whose Roman underground cisterns stand nearly whole. Paths wind past the theatre and temple sites to an Ottoman fort at the hill's edge. Coaches seldom come, so you may meet hardly anyone inside.